Hardy's works

[subterranean]

Seems that his major novels were at first posted in journals or maganize before they were bounded in to a novel. And Hady often did some editings before published them in to novel. I guess that Hardy wanted to see reader's responds first. Then he made the necessary changes before making them as novels. For example, in Tess of the D'Ubervilles, Hardy made a significant changes about the pregnancy of Tess cause when the story was published in the tabloid, that part received many negative comments. Thus, he modified that section in the novel edition, so it'd be more "acceptable" to be read by readers during that time.

What do you think?

[Janine]

Hi, I believe, from what I have read on the subject, it was very much a common thing for authors to serialize their work in newpapers, journels or magazines. It was just the way novels were presented in the 1800's and extened into the early part of the next century. People probably liked reading them in this way and the popularity and reputation of the author was established easily. Many of the authors at that time had to deal with censorship; I know for a fact that Hardy had a lot of grief from publishers, as did James Joyce and D.H. Lawrence. I think they also published some of their work in similiar mass media - perhaps short stories or essays...but I may be wrong. I know that in the 1800's this form of presenting ones work was very popular in society - sort of the soap opera of the day (pre-TV). Perhaps Hardy had a different publisher for the actual book and he was less generous in his interpretation of what was and was not decent and acceptable. It was also common for many prominent authors to rewrite their books prior to going to full publication. I do know that after "Jude the Obsure", Hardy abandoned novel writing completely. I can imagine that book would have caused all out mayhem at that time. It must have been quite shocking to a stuffy Victorian society. Hope these ideas help!

[kelby_lake]

I suppose also serialised fiction out of necessity is more melodramatic.